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What if Walt Disney was the producer of Looney Tunes/Walt Disney Animated Classics/The Rescuers
The Rescuers is a 1977 American animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Walt Disney and first released on June 22, 1977 by Buena Vista Distribution. The 26th Disney animated feature film, the film is about the Rescue Aid Society, an international mouse organization headquartered in New York City and shadowing the United Nations, dedicated to helping abduction victims around the world at large. Two of these mice, jittery janitor Bernard (Bob Newhart) and his co-agent, the elegant Miss Bianca (Eva Gabor), set out to rescue Penny (Michelle Stacy), an orphan girl being held prisoner in the Devil's Bayou by treasure huntress Madame Medusa (Geraldine Page). The film is based on a series of books by Margery Sharp, most notably The Rescuers and Miss Bianca. During the 1960s and early 70s, while his studio's films at the time took on the trend of comedy, Walt Disney saw The Rescuers as the perfect story to returning the classic, emotional and fantastical tone from his first films. The Rescuers received many positive reviews from critics and was also well received by audiences and was a box-office success. Due to the film's success, a sequel entitled The Rescuers Down Under was released in 1990, which made this film the second Disney animated film to have a sequel, after The Wizard of Oz. Plot In an abandoned river boat in Devil's Bayou, a young orphan named Penny drops a message in a bottle, containing a plea for help into the river. The bottle is carried out to sea and washes up in New York and arrives at the pier where the mice discover it. That morning, the mice meet at the United Nations, where it is recovered by the Rescue Aid Society (United Nations Organization). The Hungarian representative, Miss Bianca, volunteers to accept the case and chooses the janitor, Bernard, as her co-agent. It starts to rain at night when the bus stops and pulls over. Bernard and Miss Bianca get off the bus and walk on the sidewalk to hide in the post box. When the mice are walking to the zoo, Bernard becomes scared of lions and wants to get out of there. The two visit Morningside Orphanage, where Penny lived, and meet an old cat named Rufus. He tells them about a wicked woman named Madame Medusa who once tried to lure Penny into her car and may have abducted Penny this time. The mice travel to Medusa's pawn shop, where they discover that she and her partner Mr. Snoops are on a quest to find the world's largest diamond, the Devil's Eye. As the mice talk to the Pan Am Tower, they head to the Fly Albatross Air Service. With the help of an albatross named Orville, and a dragonfly named Evinrude, the mice follow Medusa and Mr. Snoops to the bayou. There, they learn that Penny was captured and made to enter a hole that leads down into the pirates' cave where the Devil's Eye is located. Thanks to Miss Bianca's perfume, the mice attract the attention of Medusa's pet crocodiles, Brutus and Nero. Bernard and Miss Bianca escape and find Penny. The following morning, Medusa and Mr. Snoops send Penny down into the cave to find the gem, unaware that Miss Bianca and Bernard are hiding in her skirt pocket. The three soon find the stone within a pirate skull; as Penny pries the mouth open with a sword, the mice push it out from within, but soon the oceanic tide rises and floods the cave. Miss Bianca, Penny, and Bernard barely manage to retrieve the diamond and escape. The greedy Medusa steals the diamond for herself and hides it in Penny's teddy bear. When she trips over a cable, Medusa loses the bear to Penny, who runs away with it. Medusa retaliates with gunfire, causing the mice to flee until they are met by Brutus and Nero, her crocodiles. Bernard and Miss Bianca trick them into entering a cage-like elevator, trapping them. Two of the gang set off Snoops' fireworks, making the boat sink and freeing Brutus and Nero. Penny and the gang commandeer Medusa's "swamp mobile". Medusa pursues them on Brutus and Nero, viciously whipping the two crocodiles as she does so, but crashes and is left clinging to the boat's smoke stacks with the angered Brutus and Nero attacking below. Back in New York, the Rescue Aid Society watch TV to hear that the Devil's Eye is given to the Smithsonian Institution and Penny is adopted by a new father and mother. Bernard and Miss Bianca remain partners in the Rescue Aid Society's missions and soon after departing on Orville, accompanied by Evinrude, to a new rescue mission. Cast Production Animation Music Track list Release Marketing Home media Reception Box office Critical reaction Accolades Sequel Trivia *